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Sunday, January 24, 2016

PETER BRUCE AND HOW THE MEDIA BURIES ITS DEPARTED

Dear Newspaper Readers,

It
was a fascinating Sunday Times column this week by Peter Bruce. It was
particularly fascinating because it showed how a journalist of his stature
hadn’t noticed that the beginning of what he had to say made the second part so
wrong.

He was explaining why being an editor is the best job
in the world.

Bruce should know. He is the Editor in
Chief of the Johannesburg based Business Day and Financial Mail, which are both
in the Times Media Group that also owns the Sunday Times.

Evidently this gives him a certain aura which ensures
that no sub-editor or anybody else interferes with his column even when he
blatantly contradicts himself.

Initially he told us: “On any
publication there’s constant tensionbetween owner and editor and one thing
never changes: the owner is the boss.”

Then further down in the same column
he maintained that being an editor is a fantastic job because “no one tells
you what to do and you are given the most astonishing degree of control,”
so much so that “you’re
God and you don’t have to be nice about it.”

Peter old chap I hope you won’t think
it impertinent of me, but you really need to brush up on your knowledge of the
Bible. Last time I looked at it, which let’s face wasn’t exactly yesterday, I’m
sure it said somewhere that there is only one God – not two as you seem to
think.

If what you said about the owner being
the boss is correct the editor can only be a disciple, certainly not God.

Bruce went on to tell us that Business
Day’s editor Songezo Zibi had just resigned and he praised him as if he really
had been God.

SONGEZO ZIBI & BRUCE

It reminded me of the way the
reputations of the dead are so often given an impressive boost at their
funerals by making them out to be far better than they ever were when they were
alive.

In
typical newspaper fashion Bruce did what he would no doubt not have expected of
journalists under him – he omitted the most important part of the story.

Why
Zibi departed after less than two years in his Heaven sent job was left to the
reader to speculate.

Rumour or was it fact had it that he was
sick and tired of management interference.

By management could he have meant
Bruce himself? You see he actually replaced Bruce, who had been fulfilling the
dual role of long time editor and Editor in Chief, a position he continued to
hold after Zibi’s appointment.

Could
it have been that Zibi could no longer take having the man he had replaced
constantly peering over his shoulder and that was why Bruce was not at all
specific about the actual reason why Zibi left?

PHYLICIA OPPELT

Recently the editor of the Sunday
Times itself, Phylicia Oppelt departed in the same mysterious fashion as Zibi.

I get that paper regularly and I saw
nothing to explain why she had gone after becoming the first female editor in
the history of this 107 year old national paper.

Oppelt was moved “upstairs” as the
saying goes to become “GM for editorial projects” whatever that means. If she
had been no good as editor one wonders if she will be any better in this
position.

Inexplicably her replacement was Bongani
Siqoko, the editor of the minute East London Daily Dispatch. This has a measly
circulation of just under 25 000 whereas the Sunday Times figure is close
to 500 000.

He had only edited the Dispatch for a little
less than three years.

In the last few years the Sunday Times
group had two in house Ombudsmen neither of whom lasted very long.

They were both veteran journalists and
former editors. The first one was Thabo Leshilo who was followed by Joe
Latakgomo.

I never saw anything in the Sunday
Times or other papers in the same stable that explained why they had left or
that they had left. Even now if you Google their names you won’t get the answer
to this.

They were two more examples of the way
newspapers bury their departed without taking their readers into their
confidence. No doubt there are numerous others.

The Times Media Group no longer has an
ombudsman, possibly because this “look how open and honest we are” experiment
proved too embarrassing, or it still has one which it is keeping mum about.

Regards,

Jon,
the Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman who believes the Media should practice what it
preaches, something it finds exceedingly hard to do.

P.S. I’m the Boss and Editor
of this blog of mine so I definitely have complete control of what appears in
it, but I have no claims to being God. I also don’t have to be nice, but I try to be truthful as well as fair with
a comical touch thrown in.

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About Me

I was born in South Africa just before the Boer War whenever that was?
Started life with a golden spoon in my mouth which made eating rather difficult as a result I was under nourished as a child.
Went to a posh school where I only got moved up a class when my old man donated another sight screen for the cricket pitch.
Career prospects were dismal and I was once turned down for a job in the London sewers. "Too highly qualified;"that’s what they said.
I became a journalist when the Police Force wouldn’t have me.
Like most journos I know nothing about everything but I still write about it.
I decided to have my own blog so I wouldn't have to drink with the editor for hours on end to get my stuff published when according to my independent assessment it’s always of great news value.
My religious beliefs are: You only die once so remember, "You can’t be serious and Have Fun."
NEWS FLASH: I've just been appointed the Poor Man's Press Ombudsman by Presidential Decree (Not to be confused with the PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA'S, SA Press Ombudsman)